Tour de Cure 2017
- Participants of the annual Tour de Cure, presented by the American Diabetes Association, start the race at Camp Widjiwagan.

NIDDK Symposium Poster Presentations
- Visiting professor Arshiya Baig, MPH, MD with students presenting their research at the annual NIDDK Medical Student Research Symposium in August 2018.

Ashley Williams
- The prevalence of Type 2 diabetes has increased dramatically in recent years due to excess dietary fat and sedentary lifestyles. The aims of my dissertation are designed to determine the role of the ECM in diet induced hepatic insulin resistance.

About the DRTC

The Vanderbilt Diabetes Research and Training Center (DRTC)is a NIH-sponsored Diabetes Center that facilitates the discovery, application, and translation of scientific knowledge to improve the lives of people with diabetes.

The DRTC highlights the research of its members by brief videos. Click here » to watch DRTC members describing his/her research.

More than 200 investigators from across the globe who specialize in islet biology, the study of hormone-producing cell clusters in the pancreas known as islets, recently gathered in Nashville to share knowledge and present the challenges and successes of their work during the first Islet Biology Workshop at Vanderbilt.

Research on how the diabetes drug metformin blocks glucose production by the liver by David Wasserman, PhD, left, Curtis Hughey, PhD, Louise Lantier, PhD, and colleagues could lead to new ways to treat type 2 diabetes.

Griffin Rodgers, MD, director of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), presented a lecture and observed poster presentations by several medical students including, from left, Charles Akiona from University of Hawaii, Kunal Sampat from Midwestern University Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine and Monica Choo from University of Michigan. (photo by Joe Howell)

The Molecular Endocrinology Training Program (METP) at Vanderbilt University, led by Richard O’Brien, PhD, Maureen Gannon, PhD, Owen McGuinness, PhD and Brian Wadzinski, PhD, has been awarded their 5-year competitive renewal training grant to fund the program. The goal of the METP is to provide resources for training researchers in molecular endocrinology, and provide support for research labs working in areas such as signal transduction, the regulation of gene expression, beta-cell development, and metabolic regulation. This program has been supported by this training grant for 31 years.

A drug used to treat diabetes may point to new therapies for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) bronchiolitis — inflammation and obstruction of the lungs’ small airways. A multi-disciplinary team of Vanderbilt investigators has demonstrated that liraglutide reduces the inflammatory response to RSV infection in a mouse model of the disease.

Titilola Ogunsola was always interested in making a difference in marginalized communities. Throughout her education, she’s worked with adolescents and adults faced with health disparities and difficult circumstances.

Daniel Lark, PhD, and colleagues publish new study on exercise and weight loss

A new study published in Diabetes explains why exercise alone is not enough to achieve weight loss. The study was conducted by Daniel Lark, PhD, and members of the Wasserman Lab. The article has been featured in The New York Times.

Featured Article:

Cellular calcium handling in diabetes

David Wasserman, Ph.D., and graduate student Ian Williams have discovered how insulin moves through blood vessels and enters the skeletal muscle. This discovery could allow researchers to develop new methods of reversing insulin resistance.